Fauci tells business leaders to "overshoot" on safety precautions
Dr. Anthony Fauci told a group of business leaders Friday he’s very concerned about a possible resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the fall, according to two people with knowledge of a call with the CEO lobbying group, Business Roundtable.
The group hosted the call with the nation’s top infectious disease doctor for about 100 of its members. The business leaders peppered Fauci with questions about when they should reopen their businesses and allow employees back to the workplace.
Facui told the executives to “overshoot on everything” when it comes to safety precautions, specifically on using masks and enforcing social distancing, according to those familiar with the call.
Those measures, including hand washing, should be a higher priorities for CEOs than diagnostic and antibody testing of their workforces, said one of the people.
Fauci de-emphasized antibody testing as a prerequisite for reopening because antibody tests are still unreliable, he told the CEOs, according to one of the people on the call.
Fauci also expressed similar reservations about temperature screenings, reminding the business leaders that temperature checks only work for finding people with symptoms. As a result, temperature checks are not the most reliable screening method since carriers may be asymptomatic.
All 2020 NFL games will be played in the US due to coronavirus concerns
The NFL announced Monday that all games in the 2020 season will be played in the United States, thus cancelling the league's annual International Series games, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The NFL planned to play four games in London - two at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and two at Wembley Stadium - and one game in Mexico City at Azteca Stadium during the 2020 season.
"After considerable analysis, we believe the decision to play all our games domestically this season is the right one for our players, our clubs, and all our fans in the US, Mexico and UK," NFL Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer Christopher Halpin said in a statement.
"We also thank our incredible fans in those territories for their passionate support of the NFL. We will continue to serve them through our outstanding media partners and by being active supporters of both grassroots football and COVID-19 relief efforts in Mexico and the UK," the statement said.
NFL plans to release its full 17-week schedule for next season later this week.
St. Louis is "extremely short" on testing, mayor says
The state of Missouri began reopening today — But St. Louis won't.
The city has chosen to keep the stay-at-home orders in place for “another week or two weeks” because the city lacks testing capacity, Mayor Lyda Krewson said Monday.
“We are extremely short,” she said. “Part of the reason that we may be seeing a bit of an uptick in the number of cases is that we have begun being able to do a little bit more testing in the last week or so. So these cases may have always been present in our community and we just weren't able to test them to find them.”
The city of St. Louis and its region has two-thirds of the cases in Missouri. Over the weekend, St. Louis reported 154 cases, the mayor said.
“The stay-at-home orders have been painful for people staying at home, but they're also painful for people going to work every day — policemen, firemen, water department, refuse workers, hospital workers, grocery store clerks,” she said.
The reopening of the state has added some pressure on the city but she emphasized on reopening only as the coronavirus cases decrease.
“What we have here is a situation where one size does not fit all,” she said. “We're going to continue to look at the data and have that inform us.”
WATCH:
More than 1,800 new coronavirus cases reported in Massachusetts today
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker reported 1,824 new coronavirus cases today, about 12% of the 16,000 tests processed in the state yesterday.
Positive test rates have come in under 20% every day for the last seven days, he said.
Hospitalizations have also been decreasing in the past several days with few spikes. The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care dropped to 904, he said. However, Baker said that different parts of the state are in various stages of the pandemic.
"For example, Covid hospitalizations and ICU bed days related to Covid have gone down in Western Mass and on the Cape but have remain high in Worcester and on the south coast, and flat in Boston," he said.
While thousands of people are still being hospitalized for Covid-19, Baker said, "the numbers have started to trend in the right direction."
New Jersey reports more than 1,600 new Covid-19 cases
There were 1,621 new Covid-19 cases reported across New Jersey, bringing the total cases in the state to 128,269, Gov. Phil Murphy said today.
An additional 45 people have died from Covid-19 for a total of 7,910 deaths, the governor said.
The state will continue to review the numbers of Covid-19 cases to see if opening the parks was a good idea, he said.
Murphy said he went to a park this weekend and encouraged more people to wear face coverings because he didn’t see enough people wearing masks.
The Senate is returning to DC today. Here's what to expect.
Senators are returning to the Capitol today –– many anxious about their safety as the coronavirus spreads –– to tackle a variety of business.
Special rules governing social distancing in the Capitol will be enforced, including limiting the number of senators on the floor at a time during votes and ensuring doorways aren't crowded. Committees will be assigned the largest rooms available to conduct hearings, and face masks will now be expected to be worn by all.
Here's what to expect as senators return to work:
- Coronavirus legislation: House and Senate negotiators must find common ground if they are going to pass anther coronavirus response bill. Congress has already approved about $3 trillion in relief since the onset of the pandemic but most lawmakers believe more help is needed. Democrats, who control the House and can filibuster bills in the Senate, are eyeing up to another $1 trillion to assist state and local governments, but Republican leaders in the Senate are unlikely to go along with such a big figure.
- Director of National Intelligence confirmation: The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a confirmation hearing Tuesday for Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas to the Director of National Intelligence –– a critical post overseeing the many agencies that make up the Intelligence Community. Ratcliffe was initially nominated to the post last year but withdrew after a storm of bipartisan criticism about his experience.
- Controversial judge confirmation: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a confirmation hearing Wednesday for Judge Justin Walker for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Walker, a protégé of McConnell's, has drawn the ire of Democrats who accuse the majority leader of packing the federal judiciary with young conservative judges who will serve for decades.
- Other key hearings: The health subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m. on the Covid-19 response with former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Friedman and others testifying. This is the hearing where the White House prevented Fauci from appearing.
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